Meet the Family: Puppies!

Before we got Sophie and Spade fixed, Mike and I decided to let them have one litter of puppies. We were a little nervous at first, but now looking back, it was such an amazing experience to have and I'm so happy with our decision.

Soon enough, we had a pregnant Sophie on our hands! Her stomach never really got all that big, but sometimes when you rubbed her belly you could feel the puppies moving around. It was pretty amazing.

About two months later, at around 10:30 at night, Sophie climbed onto Mike's chest and started shaking. She was officially in labor. As soon as Mike put her down, she went and laid down in the "nesting box" that we made for her the month before.

After about 35 minutes of labor, the first puppy arrived, a little boy. Five minutes after that, another little boy. Almost immediately after him, a third boy was born! I'm not going to lie, I was a little sad that there were no little girls. Of course, I ate my words because 15 minutes after the third boy was born, out came a little girl!

Side note: Funny enough, Sophie had no desire to chew her puppies out of their placenta. Luckily we were prepared. I got the puppies out of their placentas (with my bare hands, natch) and Mike helped me tied and cut the umbilical cords. Like I said, amazing experience.

Here are the aborable little puppies:

Seconds after giving birth.

Snuggling up to their momma.

About a week old, starting to look like actual puppies.

Sleeping puppy totem pole.

A little over a month old and playful!

When they were born, we gave them all ambiguous names so we didn't get attached. Not that it worked or anything. But hey, at least we tried!

The Fatty: First born, the biggest of the bunch, snuggly and always hungry.

The Middle Child: The second born, a little smaller than Fatty, very playful.

The Runt: Last boy born, tiny baby, calm, quiet, and super chill.

The Princess: The only girl, very sweet and snuggly, sleeps a lot.

We interviewed all of the potential buyers and found great homes for all of them. All but one. The Fatty just worked his little way into my heart so we ended up keeping him, and giving him a real name: Scout!

The puppies are all about a year and a half now, and I'm so thankful that I'm still in contact with the families that they went to (Belle's momma actually has a blog here!) I spend lots of time on Facebook checking up on them and seeing how they've grown up. Without further ado, here they are, all grown up (and with real names, of course!).

Sophie and Spade did good!